Concerns Over Extra Christmas Post

Work begins in Watford today to deal with the country's extra Christmas post.

Royal Mail are spending 15 million pounds setting up nine sites across the UK to deal with the extra cards and parcels sent at this time of year.

There are worries though the extra workload will make existing delivery problems in Watford worse - There have been problems with post in the town for months since Royal Mail changed their delivery methods. Many residents are still complaining they're receiving post days late or not at all even though the company insist the service is running well.

A Watford postman, who represents the Communication Workers Union and wants to remain anonymous, told Heart they're already struggling ''We are still trying to get as much packets out per day per week as we can but obviously there are still a lot of packets in Watford.

''What we cannot cope with is the lack of people that Watford seems to have at this time of year to help us to get the extra mail out.''

Royal Mail says the Watford packet hub will employ more than 300 seasonal staff sorting packets and parcels in the run up to Christmas.